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Description of Lo-Fi

 
Originally known only as a technique for making recordings, Lo-Fi -- shortspeak for low-fidelity -- is now a vibrant subgenre of Indie Rock. As the media embraced this budding sub-genre and gave it its two minutes, it became a musical/political statement of sorts. An intentional nose-thumbing to the glitzy, cookie-cutter albums major labels often churn out -- as well as being a minimalist form of art -- these records were notoriously produced on $200 four-tracks using cheap microphones. Despite indie rock's sometimes-sour elitism, Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted and Guided By Voices' pre-Do The Collapse catalog indeed offer strong testimony that production dollars can't alone write a song.
 

Top Lo-Fi Tracks

 
Play Track Artist Price
1. Small Deaths The Dodos
$0.99
2. Longform The Dodos
$0.99
3. Fables The Dodos
$0.99
4. The Strums The Dodos
$0.99
5. This Is A Business The Dodos
$0.99
6. Two Medicines The Dodos
$0.99
7. Troll Nacht The Dodos
$0.99
8. Acorn Factory The Dodos
$0.99
9. Time To Die The Dodos
$0.99
10. My Girls Animal Collective
$0.99
11. Flightless Bird, American Mouth Iron and Wine
$0.99
12. Naked As We Came Iron and Wine
$0.99
13. Fools The Dodos
$0.99
14. Summertime Clothes Animal Collective
$0.99
15. Such Great Heights (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
16. Boy With a Coin Iron and Wine
$0.99
17. In The Flowers Animal Collective
$0.99
18. Easier Grizzly Bear
$0.99
19. Nantes Beirut
$0.99
20. Dearest Forsaken (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
21. Postcards From Italy Beirut
$0.99
22. Walking The Dodos
$0.99
23. Stillness Is The Move Dirty Projectors
$0.99
24. Knife Grizzly Bear
$0.99
25. Love Vigilantes (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
26. A Sunday Smile Beirut
$0.99
27. Cannibal Resource Dirty Projectors
$0.99
28. Waitin' For A Superman (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
29. Morning (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
30. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea Neutral Milk Hotel
$0.99
31. Anyone Else But You The Moldy Peaches
$0.99
32. Temecula Sunrise Dirty Projectors
$0.99
33. Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car Iron and Wine
$0.99
34. Lullabye Grizzly Bear
$0.99
35. Loud As Hope (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
36. Red And Purple The Dodos
$0.99
37. Peng! (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
38. Belated Promise Ring (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
39. Friends They Are Jewels (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
40. The King Of Carrot Flowers, Pt. One Neutral Milk Hotel
$0.99
41. Sunset Soon Forgotten Iron and Wine
$0.99
42. The Trapeze Swinger (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
43. Hickory (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
44. Little Brother Grizzly Bear
$0.99
45. Sacred Vision (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
46. Also Frightened Animal Collective
$0.99
47. Daily Routine Animal Collective
$0.99
48. Love And Some Verses Iron and Wine
$0.99
49. Swans and The Swimming (Album) Iron and Wine
$0.99
50. My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille Beirut
$0.99
 

Lo-Fi Key Albums

 
Alight of Night
$8.99
And Don't The Kids Just Love It
$8.99
Anthology
$14.99
Bait & Switch
$8.99
Beat Happening
$7.99
Bee Thousand
$8.99
Constant Hitmaker
$8.99
Dusk at Cubist Castle
$8.99
Enter The Vaselines
(Bonus Tracks, Explicit) $10.99
Exile In Guyville
(Bonus Tracks) $10.99
For Almost Ever Scooter
$8.99
III
$11.98
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
$8.99
Mother of All Saints
$8.99
On Avery Island
$8.99
One Foot In The Grave
(Bonus Tracks) $9.99
One Sock Missing
$8.99
Rip It Off
$8.99
Rock And Roll Holiday
$9.99
Singles Party 1992-1993
$7.99
Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe
(Bonus Tracks) $18.99
Sweden
$9.99
Tard & Further'd
$8.99
The Eyeball Of Hell
(Explicit) $8.99
They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days...
$9.99
Under The Blood Red Lava Lamp
(Explicit) $8.99
Vivian Girls
$8.99
Walk To The Fire
$8.99
Wattle & Daub
$8.99
Winning Losers
$8.99

 

Filed Under

 
 

Lo-Fi Key Artists

 
Beat Happening

If you find the
amateurishness and general
off-key nature of indie rock
irritating, blame Beat
Happening. The group's s...

Beatnik Filmstars

Beatnik Filmstars dredge up
the best in '60s pop and
dreamy acoustics and filter
it through post-punk
nihilism.

Electric Eels

Electric Eels were a seminal
pre-punk no-talent band in
early '70s Cleveland, Ohio.
They took negativity to new
extremes. Friends with Pe...

Guided By Voices

Prolific indie rock stalwarts
whose love of brash,
Who-like melodies and lo-fi
aesthetics have made them
heroes to the kids. While...

Half Japanese

Half Japanese have been
deconstructing rock
through amateurish genius
since 1977. Half
Japanese’s only stable...

Neutral Milk Hotel

NMH combine the awe and
wonder of psychedelic-folk
with the intensity and
stripped-down nature of
Indie Rock. Led by Jeff M...

Pavement

Though never as huge as
some thought they'd
become, Pavement were
still the darlings of the '90s
Indie Rock underground....

Sebadoh

Sebadoh are often
described as the
quintessential Lo-Fi band of
the '90s. Sebadoh are the
creation of Lou Barlow, w...

Television Personalities

The Television Personalities'
quirk pop has influenced
everyone from Creation
Record's Alan McGee to
Green Day.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

This important indie psyche
band has been punching
each other onstage and
generally causing chaos
since the early 1990s. "Dig...

The Cannanes

Crackly, warm pop band
that have gone from early
Punk-Pop songs to
something more
self-confident, yet still wi...

The Grifters

Active in the early and
mid-1990s, the Grifters were
a 4-track-abusing indie rock
band from Memphis, Tenn.
After the Grifters split up,...

The Mountain Goats

Earnest (yet not
pretentious) homespun
folk/pop songs delivered
troubadour style by singer
John Darnielle.

Times New Viking

Times New Viking is a lo-fi
trio from Columbus, Ohio.
The group strips down '60s
garage pop to its core with
treble turned up to 11. Fo...

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